§ 28. Mr. Tebbitasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what, for each of the last five years, has been the number of fatal accidents to British-registered aircraft engaged in public transport flights, the number of those aircraft carrying a crash-protected flight recorder, the number of those recorders believed to be serviceable at the beginning of the 22 fatal flight, and the number of those recorders which yielded all the information which they were capable of doing.
§ Mr. NobleWith permission I will circulate the figures requested in the OFFICIAL REPORT in the form of a Table.
To summarise, there were, over the last five years, 12 fatal accidents to British-registered aircraft on public transport flights. On six of these aircraft crash-protected recorders were carried. All six were believed serviceable at the beginning of the fatal flights and two of the recorders yielded all the information they were capable of recording. These figures exclude one taxi-ing fatality to a third party.
§ Mr. TebbitDoes not my right hon. Friend agree that the fact that only two of these recorders out of 12 incidents yielded the information which could be expected of them indicates the need to ensure that a serviceable crash-protected flight recorder is carried on public transport flights by all United Kingdom-registered aircraft?
§ Mr. NobleIn one case—one of the four—the aircraft was not recoverable. In another, the recorder failed to record one mandatory parameter. In the third accident, the recording wire was damaged, and only partial information was recovered. In the last, although it failed to record one mandatory parameter, all information relative to the accident was retrieved. Perhaps the situation is not as bad as the summary of information that I have given appears to indicate. It would be undesirable to insist that all public transport flights carried these very expensive and sometimes rather heavy pieces of equipment.
§ Mr. MasonDo the statistics reveal a higher accident rate among charter operators, as distinct from the independent airlines and the public corporations? Since the charter operators have more take-offs and landings and, therefore, generally speaking are subject to more accidents than the independent airlines and the public corporations, is not it more encumbent upon them to carry these black box flight recorders?
§ Mr. NobleI am afraid that I cannot give the answer for which the right hon. 23 Gentleman asks without notice. The truth is that over a number of years the accident record of the charter operators has come up to about level with those of
| Calendar Year | Fatal accidents to U.K.-registered aircraft on Public Transport flights | Crash-protected Recorders fitted | Recorders believed serviceable before flight | All Recorder information yielded | ||
| 1966 | … | … | 3 | 0 | — | — |
| 1967 | … | … | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 1968 | … | … | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 1969 | … | … | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| 1970 | … | … | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 12 | 6 | 6 | 2 |
§ Notes:
- 1. In one of the accidents in 1967 (B.E.A. Comet near Rhodes) the aircraft wreckage sank in over 1,000 fathoms of water and the recorder was not recovered.
- 2. The figures for 1970 exclude a fatal accident when a member of the ground staff working beside a taxiway at Heathrow was struck by the engine pod of a B.O.A.C. 707 as it was taxiing out for take-off.
- 3. In the one accident in 1970 (Dan Air Comet near Barcelona) although not all the information was recovered from the recorder all information significant to the accident investigation was available.